The Baseball Thread

[Simon_Cowbell]

Lineups that are better than the Phillies - top of my head:

Mets
Yankees
Red Sox
Indians
White Sox

I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

And as for their pitching, I'm pretty unimpressed. You're assuming Hamels takes a huge leap, and after that you have a bunch of #3s. Deep? Yes. Great, not even close.

RUNS SCORED IN 2006 (a good little barometer of how teams' offenses are)
PHILLIES- 865
mets- 834
yankees- 930 (wow!)
White Sox- 860
Red Sox-820
Indians-870
The Phillies lineup is DEFINATLY best in the NL, and better than most in the AL (which also have a DH).

To say that the rotation is a bunch of 3's is RIDICULOUS! Myers has proven he can do it, and so has Garcia. The depth is great, what other team has a rotation that goes SIX deep!

I don't mean to sound like a homer, but give them some credit. Their the early season favorite in the NL. Right?

Myers is not an ace. Neither is Garcia. Hamels might be one someday, but that's a tough thing to depend on from a guy who hasn't made it through an entire season in the bigs yet.

At the very worst, the Phils have three No. 2s... they may very well have three No. 1s.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Cardinals are the NL favorites, for sure.

The Phillies are no better than even with the Mets in the East. They can't be considered favorites for anything until they can ever get IN the damn playoffs.

With Chris Carpenter, Kip Wells and pray for rain?

I disagree.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

The Braves will be no worse with Lance Cormier than with Hampton.

That's probably where they would have been even if Hampton's oblique had not decided to explode. Cormier will get 10 more starts than he might have otherwise, and the starting pitching will still be as good as it was last year, which, even with all its warts, was good enough to win the division. The bullpen will be the difference. Thinking Hampton might start 30 or more games, in my opinion, has always been hubris. It's funny someone mentioned Prior and juicing. I wondered the same thing aloud about Hampton earlier today, just thinking about the way his body seems to be breaking down.

I admit, I wondered about Hampton, but a torn elbow is pretty routine. Before that, he just wasn't very good. And if anyone is going to overswing in a batting cage, it's Hampton.

I just had the thought because it wasn't just the elbow. He's had forearm (which may have been related to the elbow), back and knee problems in the last couple of years, and now this.